This invention relates generally to digital printing systems which take structured electronic documents defined in accordance with a document description language and convert the documents into a format (e.g. raster) understood by the marking engine which places marks on a media such as paper to provide hard copy output of the documents.
In order to provide for the communication of electronic documents between a computer or other document creation source, the documents may be prepared in accordance with a known encoding scheme. One such encoding scheme is known as ASCII. The ASCII encoding scheme however is of limited utility for representing structured electronic documents. Thus, other encoding formats have been created to provide fuller structural representations of electronic documents. Some of the more basic document description languages (DDLs) employ embedded control codes for supplementing ASCII encodings with variables define the logical structural (i.e., the sections, paragraphs, sentences, figures, figure captions, etc.) of electronic documents, thereby permitting such documents to be formatted in accordance with selected formatting variables such as selected font styles, font sizes, line and paragraph spacings, margins, indentations, header and footer locations and columns. Graphical DDL codings provide more sophisticated and complete representations of electronic document structures because they encode both the logical structure and the layout structure of such documents. Page description language (PDL) encodings are related to graphical DDL encodings but they are designed so that they can be readily decomposed or interpreted to define the detailed layout of the printed page in a raster scan format. Examples of PDL""s are Postscript(trademark), PCL(trademark), PCL(trademark), PDF(trademark), Interpress(trademark) or HTML, Document files may also be formatted in TIFF, JPEG or GIF which are examples of image formats.
It is also well known to send status and information over a network. Printers such as the Apple(trademark) LaserWriter return information and status over standard bidirectional communications such as Apple-Talk(trademark). Examples of information and status are PostScript(trademark) Errors and that the printer is out of paper. This information isn""t returned when the communications channel isn""t bidirectional or when a print server such as the Kodak LionHeart System(trademark) is between the printer and the computer that submitted a print job. Other printer protocols such as line printer (lpr) give status that the print job is sent but not how or if a print job has been completed.
The present invention is intended to address the above mentioned problems with returning status and information with non-bidirectional printer protocols and print servers or otherwise where the status information returned is lacking information such as an indication that the print job is completed. The method of doing this involves embedding email information within an application file prior to sending it to the printer. The printer has special software to interpret this email information and the status and information is then sent out to the users specified via email.